Letter: Put inmates to productive use with farming

My brother has been locked up by the Michigan Department of Corrections for over 25 years, which is nearly all of my life. Through those years he has gone through a lot but has always kept the family posted on the conditions of prison life. That lets us know he still has his sanity.

There is nothing people in prison produce. If they are not working for Michigan State Industrial (which is only a small fraction of the population), they work manual tasks around the prison. They basically keep the prison clean and running in good order. Other than that, they go to school to get a GED.

If a prisoner chooses not to go to school or work, they put them on “00” status, which means they keep them locked up for the majority of the day. Does that remind you of something — welfare for grown folks? Can you believe they’d rather have you laying around all day and up all night rather than work?

Wouldn’t it be better to take a chance and turn all this land we have to farmland and start producing something instead of laying around doing nothing? Isn’t it time for money to be produced through work rather than paying top dollar to house an inmate for the rest of their life? Can you imagine the crops that could be produced?

We spent millions of dollars for state-of-the-art prisons on top of swamps. I’m sure we can get more for our taxes than to punish them by laying in “00” status.